Chapter 21: "This Will Be Your Last Day"

The midday sun was shining over Konoha Prison. It was silent and seemed to be empty as the usual guards of Tenten and Choji were not in the guard towers. Outside the walls were unusually quiet as well, no sound of birds chirping, no animals making any kind of sound. Even Walkers were not lurking around the prison.

Inside the prison, however, wasn't empty. Everyone was hiding out with the cell block door and locked from the inside. Shikamaru sighed as he paced up and down the cell block.

"How troublesome, I can't even go outside and lie down and watch the clouds," he whined.

"I don't see why he told us to hide inside the prison, why can't we just help Sasuke fight?" asked Tenten.

Shikamaru stopped his pacing and looked to the floor.

FLASHBACK:

Shikamaru and the rest of the group stood in the courtyard of the prison. Sasuke had called everyone over and he was wondering why.

"So what's the big idea calling all of us out here?" Kiba asked, he was a bit annoyed as he was busy creating ninja tool packs in the armory.

"As you all know, Naruto and Lee left this morning to head for a place Lee called, The Northeastern Outpost where they are going to try and get some much needed supplies for us. Yesterday me and Naruto, as you all saw, were interrogating that man we had found in a basement on the shaded side of the prison and he informed us that Father, who's real name is Ishimaru, is in fact still alive," explained Sasuke.

"What do you mean still alive?" Kiba questioned, "I saw Naruto hit him with his jutsu then slit that bastard's throat!"

"It was an Iwa Bunshin," Sasuke said. "That guy said Ishimaru always uses a Iwa Bunshin and never has his real body in victim's presence," Sasuke answered.

"So he'll eventually return here, right?" Choji asked and Sasuke nodded. "We'll all just fight him, for Ino."

"No," Sasuke said flatly. "I need to ask all of you a favor and you're probably going to have a hard time with it. I need you all to stay hidden inside the prison. I need to fight him, alone."

"What? Why?" asked Shikamaru.

"You may not notice it, but Ino's death still bothers Naruto greatly and he needs all of you here for him to stay sane. The last thing he needs is another friend dying," Sasuke replied. "And I need to do it for my own reasons as well."

"But you're his best friend, you think he won't go apeshit if something happened..." Tenten's protest was interrupted.

"I won't die," Sasuke said with great confidence.

Shikamaru sighed, "Fine, we'll stay out of it."

"But Shikamaru..." Choji began but was caught off by Shikamaru.

"Let it go Choji."

END OF FLASHBACK

'That was two days ago and still no sign of Ishimaru,' Shikamaru thought.

"I'll put my faith in Sasuke since Naruto put his faith in him. I'll stay hidden inside the prison to keep watch and if things start going south for Sasuke, we will all jump in and help him," Shikamaru stated.

The words seemd to lift everyone's spirit in the cell block and began getting their gear together just in case they're needed.

Sasuke concealed himself as best as he could as he kept watch on the roof, waiting for Ishimaru to show his face. He had been doing this routine for the last two days and was hoping Ishimaru never shows up. However, his hope would not come true as he noticed something come up from the ground in the courtyard.

Sasuke activated his Sharingan in his right eye and saw chakra emitting from whatever was coming out of the ground. On the ground, dirt and rock rose up from the earth and soon formed into the 'Father' gimmick of Ishimaru's.

Father looked around and was quite surprised the prison he and The Saints called home since the fall of civilization was empty. Had those Konoha-nin just kill everyone and leave? If that was the case, they would have been stupider than he thought for leaving a place with such great protection from the undead outside the walls.

"I guess my fight with the Jinchurikki will have to wait," Father said.

Suddenly he heard what sounded like birds chirping and lighting cut through Father. Father then crumbled back into a pile of dirt and rock.

"So you possess lightning release chakra," said another Father bunshin that formed behind Sasuke. "Although, I don't remember seeing you at the waterfall cave with the others."

Sasuke didn't say anything as he used Shunshin and hit the newly formed Iwa Bunshin of Father with another Chidori. Sasuke watched as more Iwa Bunshin of Father formed from the ground and they're had to be at least twenty of them.

"I'd like to see you destroy all these bunshin," said all the Father bunshin at once.

Sasuke smirked as he took out his Kusanagi and pierced the ground with it. He created another Chidori and grabbed his sword.

"Chidori Nagashi!" yelled Sasuke as electricity traveled across the ground, hitting all the Iwa Bunshin, reducing them all into piles of dirt and rock.

"I've underestimated you, I didn't take into consideration you could split your Chidori like that!" Father shouted fromt he wall.

Sasuke stared, knowing that still wasn't the real Ishimaru.

"I know that's still not your real body!" Sasuke yelled.

"You're well informed," stated Father. "Kiokure told you everything, didn't he?"

Sasuke pulled out his Kusanagi from the ground and pumped his lightning release chakra into it, causing his blade to hold the chakra. Sasuke then used Shunshin and appeared before Father and pierced the bunshin with his charged Kusanagi. The lightning in the blade traveled through Father's bunshin and it crumbled into dirt and rock.

"Why don't you stop hiding behind this Father character and show your true self!" Sasuke shouted into the forest outside the prison walls.

Sasuke waited but no one answered back and no one showed themselves to him. Sasuke turned back to the prison courtyard to find it filled with bunshin of Ishimaru, but still using the Father gimmick which caused Sasuke to grunt.

"Now why would I want to do that?" said one of the bunshin. "This is much more fun for me seeing how this will be your last day alive."

"Tch..."

'I think he's trying to make me use up most of my chakra with all these Iwa Bunshin. Maybe if I appear to have used my chakra up, the real Ishimaru will come out of hiding,' Sasuke thought.

Sasuke jumped from the prison wall and pierced the ground with his Kusanagi once more and launched another Chidori Nagashi which hit all the Iwa Bunshin, breaking them down. The bunshin Sasuke destroyed were only replaced with more but then Sasuke fell to one knee, his breathing pattern became faster. The bunshin of Father took this as a sign that Sasuke used up most of his chakra.

"Out of chakra already?" asked the bunshin. "What a pity, I figured I would have to go at this a little while longer."

The bunshin crumbled into dirt and rock as Sasuke awaited the arrival of the real Ishimaru. Sasuke didn't have to wait long as he saw a person land on the prison wall. Sasuke could see Ishimaru was still using his Father gimmick.

"Still pretending to be something you're not, it's pathetic!" Sasuke yelled between breaths.

"That's funny coming from someone who's already out of chakra," Ishimaru spat. "Very well then."

Ishimaru made a hand seal and a cloud of smoke appeared. Once it cleared, Father's appearance changed. Sasuke now saw a man who was wearing a hi-ate but the symbol he couldn't see from his distance and a brown flak jacket. His medium length blueish-grey hair lightly waved in the gentle breeze.

Ishimaru walked over toward Sasuke, who was now staring at the ground, as earth seemed to float up from the ground into Ishimaru's hand. The rock turned into a spear and positioned it for a kill strike as Ishimaru inched closer to Sasuke. When Ishimaru was close enough and about to strike when Sasuke looked up, revealing his Mangekyō Sharingan along with exposing his Rinnegan eye. Ishimaru's eyes widened when he realized just who he was fighting.

"Amaterasu!" Sasuke yelled as black flames appeared out of thin air and engulfed Ishimaru.

Ishimaru started screaming in pain as the flames burned through him quickly. However, Ishimaru seemed to have shed the flames as he appeared to be fine as the pile of rocks still burned.

"I never thought I would find myself fighting an Uchiha and if I didn't have my Iwa Yoroi, I would have been turned to ash," Ishimaru said.

Sasuke took Ishimaru's surprise as an opening as he quickly got up and then charged up another Chidori but instead of charging at Ishimaru, he swiped his arm through the air having shot electricity into the form of senbon and aimed them right at Ishimaru's kill points.

Ishimaru performed hand seals and slammed his hands into the ground and a wall of dirt and rock rose from the ground to protect Ishimaru. He knew the senbon would pierce the wall because of how earth release was weak against lightning but used the wall to block Sasuke's visual prowless to make the senbon less effective.

The senbon pierced through the wall but missed Ishimaru as he dodged them. The wall Ishimaru created crumbled as Sasuke cut through it with his Chidori and charged at Ishimaru. Ishimaru held up his arm which turned to stone and blocked Sasuke's Chidori from piercing his heart. The armor crumbled and Ishimaru kicked Sasuke into the gut, sending him flying back. Ishimaru then performed several hand seals.

"Doton: Doryūdan!" yelled Ishimaru.

Mud from below the ground rushed up to the surface and formed into the head of a dragon. The mud dragon opened its mouth and began firing a series of mud balls, flying toward Sasuke at a high rate of speed. However, with Sasuke's Sharingan, he was able to see them coming at him. Sasuke took his Kusanagi and pumped his lightning release chakra into the blade and began cutting cleanly through the mud balls.

Ichimaru knew it was going to happen, but for him to truely defeat this ninja, he had to wear him down the only way he knew which was make the Uchiha depleat his chakra.

Sasuke used Shushin once more and appeared right in front of Ishimaru and he pushed chakra into his fist as he punched Ishimaru in the face. The force of the punch pushed Ishimaru over the wall of the prison to the outside.

Sasuke decided if Ishiamaru was going to use jutsu like Doryudan, he wanted the fight to take place outside the prison to protect his comrades hiding inside the prison. Sasuke knew it was a dangerous idea because if their battle gets loud, it will attract Roamers to their location and he would have to deal with them and Ishimaru at the same time. He was going to have to end this quickly if he wanted to keep that from happening.

Ishimaru slammed into a tree trunk at least a few hundred feet from the prison. He didn't realize the punch would be that powerful but it would have hurt more if it wasn't for his Iwa Yoroi. Ishimaru returned to his feet, he knew he wasn't going to be able to keep his armor up for much longer. It appeared to him that the Uchiha had more chakra then he initially thought.

Sasuke landed a few feet away as he prepared another Chidori Nagashi. Ishimaru tried to dodge it but the lightning traveled quickly through the ground and the full force struck Ishimaru. What was left of his armor fell off and he didn't have the adequate chakra to keep it up.

"I must say Uchiha, you're the first person in a very long time to get me to this point," Ishimaru said. "Prepare to meet my ultimate weapon."

Ishimaru began performing hand seals. Sasuke used his Sharingan to anticipate Ishimaru's next move but the hand seals didn't reveal and jutsu he had seen before.

"Doton: Ōkii Iwa Gūzō!" yelled Ishimaru.

The earth began to rise from the ground and formed a giant rock golem with a rock sword. Sasuke couldn't believe the size of it. The rock monster brought down it's sword as Sasuke dodged out of the way.

Sasuke knew the only way to fight this rock monster was to unleash Susano'o to be able to counter such a behemoth. The rock golem sunk its large hands into the ground and pulled up a giant piece of the earth. The rock golem then threw it at Sasuke.

Sasuke unleashed his Susano'o; A dark blue aura surrounded him as a large skeleton figure appeared. A bow on its left arm was aimed at the flying boulder. Sasuke's Susano'o shot off several of these arrows and it imbedded into the boulder with the force of the impact slowing it down enough to fall to the ground without hurting Sasuke nore the prison. Sasuke decided to lure the golem further away from the prison. The rock golem swung its rock sword down to the ground yet again and Sasuke dodged it the best he could. Sasuke continued to run around the golem to make it follow him.

"Where are you going?" yelled Ishimaru. "Are you scared?"

'I need to end this quickly, this Uchiha is more powerful than I ever imagined.'

The rock golem turned itself around as it tried to slam its rock sword down on Sasuke again. Sasuke dodged to avoid the hit all while his Susano'o skeleton form was changing as its skin was beginning to manifest.

The rock golem stopped for a moment and opened its mouth. Balls of mud began shooting out of its mouth but Sasuke didn't dodge it in time as the mud balls hit but his Susano'o didn't allow them to touch Sasuke. Susano'o continued to grow as armor formed over the body and grew wings. Sasuke's Susano'o was at its compeleted form and it was time to bring down the rock golem.

Sasuke's Susano'o used its bow once more, but this time Sasuke used his lightning release in the arrow and shot several of them into the body of the rock golem. The rock golem began fallling apart at the points where the lightning arrows penetrated through the rock golem.

"Damn it! He can use his lightning nature with his Susano'o!" Ishimaru said to himself.

Ishimaru fell to one knee as he used most of his chakra on creating the rock golem he thought for sure would defeat the Uchiha. Ishimaru then looked to his left and noticed a horde of undead coming his way.

"Shit, Biters," Ishimaru said to himself.

Ishimaru looked over at Sasuke and saw that he had noticed the horde as well but Sasuke used Susano'o to take them all out in a second with lightning arrows. Ishimaru, feeling Sasuke had lowered his guard to him, took his chance. Ishimaru quickly performed hand seals.

'Doton: Doryūdan.'

Earth rose from the ground to form a dragon's head and shot a series of mud bombs at Sasuke. Although Sasuke wasn't looking at the moment because his focus was on taking out the horde of Walkers before they get in his way of fighting Ishimaru, the mud bombs hit but didn't do anything to him because of his protection of his Susano'o.

"Damn it, no effect," Ishimaru said to himself.

Suddenly Susano'o disappeared and Sasuke fell to his knees. He too used much of his chakra and couldn't sustain Susano'o any longer. Sasuke was still feeling the pain of using Susano'o traveling through his body, the major side effect of using Susano'o. His breathing grew heavy as he tried to return to his feet.

Ishimaru smirked as he managed to return to his feet. With shakey legs, Ishimaru slowly walked to Sasuke. This was his chance to end things with the Uchiha and then destroy the prison.

"I know there are more of you inside the prison, in fact, you or that blonde-haired monster probably told them to stay hidden," Ishimaru taunted as he got closer to Sasuke. "After I kill you, I will flush them out by destroying the prison and if they survive that, then I'll kill them with my bare hands."

"Why are you so bent on killing everyone in sight?" asked Sasuke through his heavy breathing.

"Because when Iwagakure fell, I was left to fend for myself. I was never told of an escape route to a hiding place, they left me out here in this shit hole of a world," Ishimaru explained.

"That doesn't give you the right to come to Hi no Kuni and kill people here!" Sasuke yelled.

"It doesn't matter when there is no civilization left!" Ishimaru yelled. "Besides, when I met him I found myself again."

Ishimaru pulled out a kunai and Sasuke tried to move his aching body to a position to block the kunai. Ishimaru then motioned his arm as if he was going to stab Sasuke but suddenly stopped within inches of Sasuke's head.

"W-What's going on? Why can't I move my body?" Ishimaru asked.

Sasuke managed to find the strength to get back to his feet. He looked behind Ishimaru and what he saw was a surprise.

"How troublesome that I had to come out of hiding and save your ass," said Shikamaru who was down on one knee holding a hand seal.

"I was careless, I got myself caught with the Kagemane no Jutsu," said Ishimaru.

Sasuke grabbed his Kusanagi off the ground and aimed it at Ishimaru's heart. Sasuke nodded to Shikamaru who released his Kagemane no Jutsu.

"This is for Yuki and her grandsons!" Sasuke yelled as he stabbed Ishimaru through the chest.

"Ach!" Ishimaru yelled out in pain as the sword pierced through his back.

"You were wrong, this is your last day alive," Sasuke said.

Ishimaru smirked and Sasuke noticed it.

"If you think my death," Ishimaru began but coughed up blood. "If you think my death will be the end of your suffering, then you are wrong. I'm just a small part in a bigger picture."

He coughed up more blood as the life began draining out of him. Sasuke then added insult to injury by electrifying his sword and kept it up until Ishimaru's body remained motionless. Sasuke pulled his sword out of Ishimaru's chest and his body fell to the ground as a pool of blood began forming around the torso. He then took his Kusanagi and stabbed Ishimaru's head to keep him from returning as a Walker.

"Let's get back to the prison, I'm sure this battle will draw more Walkers," Sasuke said.

Shikamaru nodded and led Sasuke back to the prison. As they walked back, the last words of Ishimaru repeated in Shikamaru's mind and it made him uneasy. He wanted to ask Ishimaru what the 'New World' on his arm meant but he doubt Ishimaru would have told him anything so he decided to let it go for the moment.

A few hours had passed as Tenten and Choji had returned guarding the prison gate and saw a small horde of Walkers had made their way to the prison. Choji alterted Shikamaru, who then went to Sasuke who was resting and recovering in the infirmary. Sasuke told them to leave the Walkers be for the moment and if they were still roaming around when he recovered, then he'd kill them.

As the sun set, Tenten and Choji were relieved of their duties for the night as Kiba and Shino took post in the guard towers for the night. Not much was going on except the wondering of the small horde of Walkers outside the walls and were unaware of the people in the guard towers. Kiba yawned and closed his eyes for a bit longer than a standard blink and he tried to shake off his fatigue until he heard loud pounding on the prison gate door.

"The Walkers?" asked Kiba, looking at Shino.

"You didn't see?" Shino asked.

"Uh, I kind of closed my eyes a bit too long," Kiba said nervously.

"Can someone help me please?" yelled a voice.

"That sounded like Gai-sensei," said Shino.

Kiba and Shino climbed down from their guard towers and opened the gate door slightly. What they found standing at the gate was none other than Maito Gai. A few of the Walkers that were mindlessly walking around the prison walls were dead and Gai had a kunai in his head dripping with Walker blood.

"Gai-sensei?" Kiba asked, surprised.

"Kiba? Shino? What are you doing here?" Gai asked, "I thought I tracked The Saints to this prison."

"This was The Saints hideout," Kiba replied.